TEMPE, Ariz. — The Angels are doing it. They’re going to try a six-man starting rotation, a tactic never before employed over an entire major league campaign. A longtime possibility became a reality once they landed Shohei Ohtani, the 23-year-old Japanese pitcher and hitter who always pitched in a six-man situation in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Some teams have come close to what the Angels will attempt. The 1931 St. Louis Cardinals and 1932 New York Yankees experimented because of doubleheaders, as detailed in a 2011 essay published by the Society for American Baseball Research. In recent seasons, several teams have done it in second halves, to offer young pitchers experience or limit their innings.

But this is different. Manager Mike Scioscia said Tuesday that he wanted to preserve flexibility, but he acknowledged the current plan is to traverse the entire 162-game schedule with six rotating starters. Almost certainly, the names of those starters will...

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